Tension rose within the room. Jemima tried not to squirm under the men’s stares. She struggled to find the right words so the men wouldn’t dismiss her concerns, and was still searching for inspiration when Eliza said,
“She has a cat; a wild thing with a fierce temper. He is akin to a guard dog, although slightly more aggressive. Well, a lot more aggressive.”
“It’s a cat!” Edward scoffed, shaking his head at them.
Jemima snorted. “Ignore us at your peril,” she warned, thinking of the huge fur ball with its penchant for ankles.
“Harrold is more than just a cat,” Eliza warned, ignoring the smirks of masculine arrogance the men shared. “You’ll learn.”
“Where will you be?” Jemima asked Hugo as she shared a cautionary look with her sister. They both knew that one of them needed to keep an eye out for the feral beast.
“I’ve got to meet with the officers running the operation, and then will join you at Harriett’s and help escort you through the line. Once you are on your way to Tintagel, I’ve got to go back and make contact with the Star Elite. I am going to be there when Scraggan is arrested, and escort the man personally to the prisoners’ cart. Then I’ll catch up with you and escort you out of Cornwall,” Hugo explained. He’d gone over the plans so many times, he was positive they had covered all possibilities.
There were so many things to do, so many places he needed to be, that even he wasn’t sure it was possible to do it all in one morning. He had to rely on Peter and Edward escorting the ladies to Tintagel as instructed, and Harriett going along without a fight.
It should all go according to plan. As long as Scraggan understood he was outmanned, outmanoeuvred, and outclassed and gave up easily.
Hugo fought a growing sense of unease. He would have preferred not to be involved in escorting Harriett out of Padstow, but had agreed that he would when he had asked Jemima to become involved back in Leicestershire. Given everything they had done to get this far, he could hardly fail to keep his side of the bargain now. He tried not to let his concerns show and rose stiffly to his feet.
“You all need to get whatever rest you can because it is going to be a long night, and an even longer day tomorrow. Once out of Padstow, the journey will be tiring and, to be safe, you cannot really stop until we get to Willowbrook in Oxfordshire,” Hugo added, casting Jemima a worried frown.
Although she looked considerably healthier than she had when she began the journey, she was still pale, and had not had time to rest si
nce the day of the executions. He wondered if she was up to the task ahead of her, but it was too late to turn back now. They were committed to going, and whatever lay in store for them, they had to stick to their ultimate goal.
Jemima slept fitfully that night. She knew Peter didn’t sleep all that well either; his tossing and turning kept interrupting her fitful slumber until she eventually gave up and stared at the ceiling. Neither of them had undressed or climbed between the sheets. With only a couple of hours before they had to leave, it didn’t seem worth the effort. But as the time to go drew close, Jemima felt the gritty pull of tiredness begin to weigh down her eyelids.
When Peter finally rolled over to look at her, she was wide awake and fighting the growing knot of nerves in her stomach.
“We will get through this,” Peter whispered, trailing a fingertip down her nose.
It was the first sign of affection he had shown her in two long days and Jemima revelled in the moment.
“I have to admit that I’m scared,” she replied, eagerly sliding closer when he drew her into his arms.
“That’s good,” Peter replied, staring absently at the wall as he played Hugo’s plans out in his mind.
Over and over, he considered the day ahead, planning for every eventuality. Although Hugo hadn’t admitted it, when it came to getting Harriett Ponsonby out of her house, it was clearly up to them.
Or rather, Jemima and Eliza were responsible for getting Harriett out of her house, and that bothered him. What if their friend had changed, and they didn’t know her as well as they thought they did? What if she absolutely refused to go with them? He knew that Eliza and Jemima wouldn’t want to leave without her. What then?
He slowly became aware that Jemima had tipped her head back and was studying him closely.
“Good?” Jemima queried, tipping her head back to frown up at him.
Peter stared down at her, taking several moments to realise what he had just said. Giving himself a mental shake, he turned his attention back to Jemima.
“If you are nervous, or scared, you are more likely to be on edge and alert. That’s good because it makes it harder for anyone to creep up on you.” At her soft gasp, he hastened to reassure her. “Not that anyone is going to creep up on you. By the sound of it, they are going to have their hands full elsewhere. Being on edge will give you an advantage if anyone does see us, or something unexpected happens. You will notice things a lot earlier, and be prepared for them.”
“Do you think anything will happen?” She hated to ask him. He couldn’t see into the future, and she didn’t want him to make promises he couldn’t keep. She didn’t really know why she had asked him, but was driven to search for any reassurance she could get.
After all, there was a very strong possibility that tomorrow, she could face the man who had murdered her father, who had set her up for murder and almost had her executed, and whose son almost succeeded in murdering Eliza.
That thought made her pause and she frowned, wondering what she would do if she did find herself face to face with Scraggan. Spitting in his eye seemed the very least she could do, given everything her family had been subjected to because of his greed.
But if challenged, could she inflict any harm upon him? Probably not, she admitted honestly. To do so would make her no better than Scraggan, and she was a better person. She had never stolen anything in her life. She might have lied once or twice, but she had never resorted to a life of crime to get ahead in the world.
“Time to go,” Peter muttered, holding her close and savouring her warmth.